'The Crazies' meets 'The Omega Man'. Long term horror buffs have seen it all before - and better.

Rating: Null/10 (5 April 2004)

Let me get one thing off my chest - this is NOT a zombie movie! A zombie is a reanimated corpse. There are no zombies in '28 Days Later...' Much has been made about this movie being a George Romero tribute, and in some ways it is. While there are some parallels with Romero's underrated 'Day Of The Dead' in the latter half of the movie when Christopher Eccleston and co. turn up, it's actually closer to being a remake of 'The Crazies' than his Dead movies. I suppose that more people have seen 'Night Of The Living Dead' and 'Dawn Of The Dead' than 'The Crazies', so that's their main reference point, but believe me, 'The Crazies' is much more accurate. 'The Crazies' with a bit of 'The Omega Man' thrown in. And that to me is the major problem with Danny Boyle's uneven movie - it's just all too familiar. Long term horror buffs have seen it all before - and better. The movie starts off well with a dazed Jim (Cillian Murphy) wandering the streets of an apparently deserted London. These opening sequences are some of the best in the movie and conjure up memories of Vincent Price in 'The Last Man On Earth' and Charlton Heston in 'The Omega Man' (both movies were inspired by Richard Matheson's novel 'I Am Legend'). Soon other characters are introduced and the movie is reasonable enjoyable, albeit a bit predictable and lacking any real depth. Around the half way point I was expecting some new spin, something fresh and original... and it never comes. It's funny but I really expected a lot more from this movie and it failed to deliver, but 'Dog Soldiers', which I expected next to nothing from was much more entertaining in my opinion. So if you're looking for a horror/action movie with fun and thrills check out 'Dog Soldiers', it really delivers. And if you want to see the "inspirations" for '28 Days Later...' rent some Romero, specifically 'The Crazies', or how about Cronenberg's 'Shivers'? Both of those movies are ten times more original and disturbing than this, and probably made on a tenth of the budget.